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MASS STORAGE OF HONEY BEE (HYMENOPTERA: APIDAE) QUEENS DURING THE WINTER

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

M.H. Wyborn ,
M.L. Winston  and
P.H. Laflamme
M.H. Wyborn
Affiliation:
Westgro Sales Inc., Delta, British Columbia, Canada V4G 1E7
M.L. Winston
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6
P.H. Laflamme
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6
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Abstract

Mass storage of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) queens over the winter was investigated in colony banks, with each queen held in her own cage within a colony. The major treatments included: (I) a single queen wintered in a small nucleus colony (control); and colony banks with 24 or 48 queens, each held individually in (II) screen cages that prevented workers from entering the cage, but allowed access for queen tending, (III) queen-excluder cages (queen-excluder material has openings of about 55 mm that prevent the larger queen but not the smaller workers from passing through the material), or (IV) screen cages until January and subsequent transfer to mini-nuclei until late March. Queens held in excluder cages showed poor survival in all 3 years of testing, and this system was not viable for commercial use; survival for any 1 year, or any excluder treatment, was never greater than 25%. In contrast, a 2-year average of 60% queen survival was found for queens that were stored in individual screened wooden cages within queenless colony banks. We found no differences in survival of banked queens that were moved between colonies monthly and those that remained in the same colony for 6 months. The success of these systems required the (a) preparation of colony banks that contained large numbers of adult workers produced by maintaining colonies with two queens during the previous summer, (b) removal of laying queen(s) during the storage period, (c) feeding of colonies well, and (d) insulation of colonies in groups of four, to preserve heat and reduce worker clustering in the winter. Surviving queens from winter storage systems were virtually identical in quality and colony performance to control queens the subsequent season. The annual profit for a commercial beekeeper who does his/her own labour for storage and hires workers for queen production was calculated as $16,625 when 4800 queens are stored over the winter, and sold for $10 each in the spring. Thus, mass queen storage using our successful systems is both biologically and economically viable.

Résumé

On a étudié l’entreposage massif d’abeilles reines (Apis mellifera L.) durant la période hivernale en utilisant des colonies "entrepôts" où chacune des reines était encagée individuellement. Les traitements furent les suivants : une seule reine hivernant dans une petite colonie noyau a servi de témoin alors que des colonies contenant 24 ou 48 reines encagées individuellement, ont été utilisées dans les trois autres traitements. Pour le second traitement, des grilles à reine empêchaient les ouvrières d’entrer en contact avec les reines mais permettaient toutefois le soin de celles-ci. Pour le troisième traitement, les barreaux de la cage d’exclusion des reines étaient disposés à 55 mm l’un de l’autre et permettaient ainsi l’entrée des ouvrières mais retenaient les reines à l’intérieur. Pour le quatrième traitement, les grilles à reine ont été utilisées jusqu’en janvier moment ou les reines furent transférées dans des mini-colonies jusqu’à la fin de mars. Les cages d’exclusion se sont avérés peu rentable commercialement en raison de la mortalité très élevée des reines. Le taux de survie des reines n’a jamais dépassé 25% lors des 3 années de recherches. Par contre, au courant de 2 années de travaux avec le système des grilles à reine, on a obtenu en moyenne un taux de survie des reines de près de 60% dans les colonies entrepôts. On n’a pas trouvé de différence au niveau du taux de survie chez les reines qui ont été transférées de colonie en colonie à chaque mois et chez celles qui hivernèrent dans la même colonie durant 6 mois. La réussite de ce système nécéssite (a) la préparation de colonies entrepôts où un grand nombre d’ouvrières adultes peut s’obtenir en laissant deux reines par colonie durant l’été précédent, (b) le retrait des reines pondeuses durant la période d’entreposage, (c) une nutrition adéquate des colonies et (d) l’isolement hivernal des colonies en groupes de quatre pour conserver la chaleur et réduire la formation de grappes d’ouvrières. Durant l’été suivant la période d’entreposage, les reines qui ont survécu ont montré les mêmes qualités que les reines témoins. Le profit annuel d’un apiculteur qui entreprend luimême les travaux d’entreposage et qui engage des travailleurs pour la production des reines a été estimé à $16,625 si 4800 reines sont entreposées durant l’hiver puis vendues à $10 l’unité au printemps. Par conséquent, l’entreposage massif des reines suivant nos techniques est viable autant du point de vue biologique qu’économique.

Type
Articles
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 125 , Issue 1 , February 1993 , pp. 113 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1993

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